Reflecting on 2013

Now that Christmas is over and the all the hype about the Christmas lunches, dinners and gifts have dissipated, it’s that time of the year again. You know, that time where you reflect on the past year and start thinking about your resolutions and aspirations for next year.

2013 was a challenging year for many people I know. And it was no different for me. It was a difficult year in many ways but I learned so much about myself in the past 12 months. You’d think that by my age, I’d already know myself inside out, but I think you never stop learning about yourself. What you knew about yourself five years ago doesn’t necessarily hold true today, because we evolve. People change. We are faced with new situations and we discover new things about ourselves.

As much as I’m happy this year is almost over, I’m also grateful for the key learnings:

– Friendship: Quality over quantity

I value friendship very highly. I love my friends and I’m the loyale type of friend, i.e once I’ve decided you’re my friend, I’ll stick by you no matter what. And 2013 had taught me that it’s not always the right approach to friendship. Any friendship is a give-and-take relationship. While it’s great to give without expecting anything in return, you also need to realise when the ‘friendship’ is a one-way street – where you’re only giving and not getting anything back. Is it worth it? Are those kind of friendships enriching your life in any way, shape or form? I made the decision to cut out those one-way friendships from my life because it just sucks up a lot of my energy and not necessarily giving me any. It was hard, I was hurt but it’s probably one of the best decisions I made in 2013.

By doing that, I was able to focus more on real friends and I’m so happy to see some friendships blossom and further developed. I’m so grateful for it and I understand that for this to happen, I had to re-assess my friendships and re-direct my energy towards people who do bring a plus to my life, and enrich my life everyday (special shout out to my lovely friend Melissa <3. Thank you <3)

– Being genuine and true to yourself, all.the.time isn’t very smart

Those who know me well, know how genuine of a person I am. While it is something I used to be very proud of, I now understand that being genuine all the time, in all situations, is just dumb. And all those years, I have been that dumb, genuine person. Some people are more powerful than you and truth and fairness don’t always (almost never) win if you enter a battle with them. So, pick your battles very carefully and just play the game.

– Family first. Always.

While this isn’t anything new for me, I realised even more this year how family is the best thing in the world. Nobody outside of your family will ever care as much for you or genuinely want what’s best for you other than your own family. And no matter what challenges life throws at you, if you are blessed to have family support, you can overcome almost anything.

– Swallow your pride and be the bigger person

Pride is another flaw of mine. I’m stubborn and I will stand up for what I believe in. 2013 has taught to swallow my pride if I want to be the bigger/better person. The satisfaction you get from being the bigger person outweighs the satisfaction you get from keeping your pride.

– Being healthy significantly improves your quality of life

Hi, I’m Miss Obvious! Duh. I know, but I had to include this as one of my key learnings because until you experience what healthy feels like, you don’t really know how much better your life can be. I’m not a healthy freak, but just getting healthier has already improved so many aspects of my life – metabolism, skin, my menstrual cycle, my fitness level, body shape etc. I cannot recommend it enough- get healthy, it’s worth it!

With all those key learnings, there’s no way 2014 is going to be a bad year. I’m excited for the new year, there are so many things to look forward to!